EDITORIAL: Student tickets disbursement issues embarrassing for all parties
Originally, the CMU athletics department announced its plan to give out 10,000 tickets to students for Saturday's football game between Central Michigan and in-state rival Michigan State.
Titled “The Clash at Kelly/Shorts Stadium,” the game has been hyped up as the biggest event in the history of mid-Michigan.
To avoid issues with overpopulation at the big game, adjustments were made to require student tickets to enter the game, despite the tradition of allowing students into athletics events without tickets. That tradition has always separated CMU from its big brothers, Michigan and Michigan State, but maybe it was necessary for the expected magnitude of this game.
After a third ticket giveaway was set up Tuesday to hand out the remaining student tickets, the athletics department still finds itself with nearly 900 tickets to be handed out. And they will try again this afternoon, with an hour and a half block set up for students who still don't have a ticket. After that, students who already got a ticket can get up to two more.
The department has acknowledged that nearly half of the on-campus population has picked up its tickets, and has said it is content with those numbers. But at this point, the question has to be asked: why couldn’t CMU fill its upgraded student section for the “biggest game in mid-Michigan history”? No one anticipated four attempts to get students to show up for the game.
If the game were between rivals Michigan and Michigan State, or Michigan and Ohio State, how quickly would those tickets have been gobbled up?
Students, who pay a major role in supporting athletics, pay more than half of the department's budget subsidy annually, should've always been offered the 10,000 tickets. That's not the issue, the question is why aren't people jumping on these tickets?
Could it be as simple as with friends in town, many students would rather stay inside and party than show up to a crowded and crazy Kelly/Shorts?
While that's possible, this Editorial Board believes its something a little bit more serious.
During the past three years athletics has taken tailgate from students and given us a coach who has led us to back-to-back 3-9 seasons.
Students pay for all those choices with their tuition money, and through those seasons they have shown athletics they don't approve of them by not showing up to games in droves.
While this game will likely be a sellout, and will likely be great for CMU, it's a sad state of affairs that it took four events to give out 10,000 free tickets to the students that pay for most of athletics and that speaks volumes in many ways.
While it's disappointing the 10,000 tickets weren't gobbled up in the first two events, athletics can't expect students to come scampering back following a lackluster two years of football.
